"I need to make sure my kids are getting the education they deserve." -- Jacqueline Dungey
(Photo: Jake Whitman/NBC News)
Since the Covid crisis broke out in March, students have been at home -- if they can be located. And that concerns Principal Jacqueline Dungey of New Paradigm Loving Elementary on Lynn Street in Detroit near the Chrysler Freeway.
So, Dungey has been on a mission with her staff to check up on all 127 students to make sure they're OK in these crazy times. She's also mobilized forces and started giving away free food at the school to North End neighborhood residents.
NBC's Cynthia McFadden reports on this heartening tale Tuesday for the "Today Show" with support from Detroit journalist Erin Einhorn of NBC News Digital.
About a dozen Loving students went missing in the weeks after Covid-19 began battering this community. Panic, sickness and death sent many Detroiters into financial and emotional turmoil, scattering some families from their homes, just as one of the safest places in a child’s life — school — was abruptly forced to close.
That’s meant educators like Dungey ... had to become detectives.
Dungey and her staff have spent the last three months knocking on doors and scouring social media in search of students needing help. They’ve pestered students’ friends. They’ve searched for their relatives. ... “I need to make sure my kids are getting the education they deserve,” she said.
